Advertising Standards Authority receives complaints about influencer Simone Anderson

Monday, 8 June 2020

Simone Anderson released a book, Journey to Health, in 2018.

The Advertising Standards Authority is looking into complaints about Instagram influencer Simone Anderson's secondhand clothing Facebook page.

The influencer, who gained a huge social media following after losing 92 kilograms in a year, has been accused of misleading her followers by failing to clearly identify whether her posts are advertisements or not.

ASA chief executive Hilary Souter said the advertising watchdog received two complaints about Anderson's Facebook page. It was being considered whether there was a possible code breach.

While Souter said she could not reveal the nature of the complaints yet, she confirmed the ASA was aware of complaints about Anderson selling clothing received as gifts from fashion designers on her secondhand clothing Facebook page Simone's Second Hand Wardrobe.

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The Advertising Standards Authority has received two complaints about Instagram influencer Simone Anderson's second hand clothing Facebook page.

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The influencer's secondhand clothing page no longer appears on Facebook.

Liz Delaney, director of the talent agency representing her, Outspoken by Odd, said Anderson had no comment to make as the matter was being investigated by the ASA.

Influencer Simone Anderson with her husband Trent Forsyth.

In the past year, the ASA had received four complaints related to influencer marketing after rules around advertising via Instagram and Facebook became more strict.

In 2018, the ASA started recognising influencers as a marketing channel, describing them as 'someone who has access to an audience by virtue of their established credibility and authenticity'.

'When the brand has control over the content it is an advertisement and it must be identified as such. Failure of an Influencer to disclose this advertiser-controlled content may leave a brand at risk of a complaint to the ASA,' the ASA's guidance notice stated.

Anderson has a social media following of more than 313,000 on Instagram and 297,000 on Facebook.

Influencers on Instagram must also indicate whether their posts are sponsored by tagging this in their post.

Last month former reality TV star Art Green's Heineken Instagram post with the hashtag '#sp' received a complaint claiming the hashtag was not a clear indication of the post being an advertisement.

The advertiser, DB Breweries, said Green's post mentioned '@heineken_NZ' and featured Heineken's 'stay apart' campaign logo, which it believed was recognisable as an advertisement.

However it accepted the ad did not comply with its own internal standards and removed it.

Last year photos of star All Blacks Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie engaging in a Champagne pouring competition were withdrawn from their Instagram accounts after a complaint was made to the ASA.

Both Tennis Auckland and Moët Hennessy removed the Instagram posts.

They told the ASA they had taken further actions so there would be no repeat, including discussions with ASB Classic organisers and the management team for Barrett and McKenzie, and advising relevant staff of their obligations under the ASA code.

Another complaint received by the ASA was against another former reality TV star and Bachelor contestant Nazanin Khanjani's Ketonic Vodka advertisement on Newshub's website.

The complainant was concerned by the advertisement which promoted the drink as having a 'sexy' taste and claiming to be a 'low carb' and 'low sugar' drink.

The advertisement was removed.